Technical Field
The present invention relates to a merchandise item registration apparatus that registers sales of merchandise items, and a merchandise item registration method.
Related Art
A conventional electronic cash register (a merchandise item registration apparatus) identifies a merchandise item by reading a data code such as a bar code attached to the merchandise item with a bar-code reader. The bar code attached to the merchandise item includes maker code information, item code information, and check digit information. After determining from the check digit information that the bar code has been correctly read, the merchandise item registration apparatus identifies the merchandise item from the item code information. As the bar code is printed on the package of the merchandise item in advance, the load on the operator of the cash register can be reduced.
However, it is extremely troublesome to attach a bar code to each of unwrapped merchandise items such as fruits and vegetables, and doing so is time-consuming and costly. As for fruits and vegetables, an operator types item codes and prices at a keyboard in a conventional operation.
In recent years, merchandise item registration apparatuses that identify fruits and vegetables as objects, and register sales of identified merchandise items have been becoming common. Such a merchandise item registration apparatus extracts an external feature amount from information in an image showing a fruit or a vegetable, and compares the extracted feature amount with a predetermined feature amount database. By doing so, the merchandise item registration apparatus determines to which merchandise item the article corresponds. Accordingly, the merchandise item registration apparatus can recognize unwrapped merchandise items, even though bar codes are not attached to the respective merchandise items. Thus, the load on the store can be reduced.
When a customer purchases merchandise items at a supermarket, the customer puts the merchandise items into a shopping basket or the like, and asks the operator of a cash register for checkout.
To register the sales of the merchandise items, the operator of the cash register controls a merchandise item registration apparatus to sequentially read the respective merchandise items in a first shopping basket related to the customer, and puts the merchandise items into a second shopping basket. If the customer asks for cancellation of one of the merchandise items at this point, the operator needs to operate a keyboard to correct the registration of the merchandise item. This operation is not a regular operation, and therefore, the operator has not yet learned this operation in many cases. Therefore, the chief operator or the like is fetched to conduct the cancellation, and a large number of steps and a long time are required for the cancellation. This problem is common between a merchandise item registration apparatus having a bar-code reading function and a merchandise item registration apparatus having an object recognition function.
JP 2013-182323 A discloses a solution “including: a similarity calculating unit that calculates a degree of similarity between an image of an object included in a frame image and a reference image of each of the merchandise items registered in a dictionary, the frame image including the image of the object captured by an imaging unit; a candidate merchandise item extracting unit that extracts candidates from the registered merchandise items corresponding to the object based on the degree of similarity; a determining unit that confirms a candidate registered merchandise item to be a provisionally-determined merchandise item when the number of candidate registered merchandise items is one, or determines a selected one of the candidate registered merchandise items to be a provisionally-determined merchandise item when there are two or more candidate registered merchandise items, and determines the provisionally-determined merchandise item to be the registered merchandise item corresponding to the object; and a special process executing unit that executes a special process set beforehand for the provisionally-determined merchandise item when the attribute of the color of the frame image exceeds a predetermined reference value prior to the determination made by the determining unit, or when the variation per unit time in the attribute of the color exceeds a predetermined reference value prior to the determination made by the determining unit.
JP 2013-182457 A discloses an objective to “increase the efficiency of operation for processing related to a result of object recognition”, and the solution thereto reads “A merchandise item reading device of an embodiment includes a recognizing unit, an identifying unit, a determining unit, a processing unit, and a confirming unit. The recognizing unit recognizes objects included in an image captured by the imaging unit. From the objects recognized by the recognizing unit, the identifying unit identifies candidate merchandise items as candidates for a purchased merchandise item. The determining unit determines a variation pattern of a specific object among the objects recognized by the recognizing unit in the image. The processing unit performs processing related to the variation pattern determined by the determining unit, in accordance with the result of the identification performed by the identifying unit. When a predetermined confirmation condition is satisfied, the confirming unit confirms the item code for identifying a candidate merchandise item among the candidate merchandise items as the item code of the purchased merchandise item.”
According to the invention disclosed in JP 2013-182323 A, an operator can cancel registration of a merchandise item, without any keyboard operation. However, in the invention disclosed in JP 2013-182323 A, the operator needs to put his/her hand over an object recognition camera, to cancel registration of a merchandise item. The operation in which the operator puts one hand over the camera is not an intuitive operation as a canceling operation, and is difficult to learn. Also, if the operator does not know of this operation, it is not possible to cancel registration of a merchandise item, either.
According to the invention disclosed in JP 2013-182457 A, an operator can cancel registration of a merchandise item, without any keyboard operation. However, the invention disclosed in JP 2013-182457 A utilizes variations in recognized objects when registration of a merchandise item is canceled. Therefore, there is a possibility that various kinds of operations are performed as a result of false recognition of objects.
Also, a merchandise item registration apparatus having a bar-code reading function cannot recognize the above described operation, and therefore, registration of a merchandise item is not canceled.